The Truth Revealed Freemasons have been connected to the all-seeing eye on the dollar bill, the French Revolution, the Knights Templar, and the pyramids of Egypt. They have been rumored to be everything from a cabal of elite power brokers ruling the world to a covert network of occultists and pagans intent on creating a new world order, to a millennia-old brotherhood perpetuating ancient wisdom through esoteric teachings. Their secret symbols, rituals, and organization have remained shrouded for centuries and spawned theory after theory. The Masonic Myth sets the record straight about the Freemasons and reveals a truth that is far more compelling than the myths.

#1 WORLDWIDE BESTSELLER • An intelligent, lightning-paced thriller set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C., with surprises at every turn. “Impossible to put down.... Another mind-blowing Robert Langdon story.” —The New York Times Famed Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon answers an unexpected summons to appear at the U.S. Capitol Building. His plans are interrupted when a disturbing object—artfully encoded with five symbols—is discovered in the building. Langdon recognizes in the find an ancient invitation into a lost world of esoteric, potentially dangerous wisdom. When his mentor Peter Solomon—a long-standing Mason and beloved philanthropist—is kidnapped, Langdon realizes that the only way to save Solomon is to accept the mystical invitation and plunge headlong into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and one inconceivable truth ... all under the watchful eye of Dan Brown's most terrifying villain to date.

In MYTH, MAGICK & MASONRY, Jaime Paul Lamb develops four thought-provoking interpretations of the symbolism and allegorical content of Freemasonry and some of its appendant bodies. By viewing the craft through the interpretive lenses of ceremonial magick, solar and astrological lore and symbolism, classical mythology and the Roman Mystery cult, Mithraism, Lamb establishes four distinct vantage points from which to survey Freemasonry. Thereby, Jaime Paul Lamb enables Masons, new and old, to develop a more nuanced appreciation of the Craft and a deeper understanding of the Fraternity's priceless initiatory heritage.

This book, a product of collaboration and cooperation between two non-Masonic historians and the Grand Lodge of Virginia, is an objective, comprehensive study of the history of Freemasonry in the state of Virginia. The authors relate a fascinating chronicle of Freemasonry, from its British origins two hundred years ago to today. Along the way, they describe the colorful figures who populate this history and debunk many myths about Freemasonry.

Prominent masonic scholars explore the history, myth and symbolism behind Freemasonry's most prominent character; the one our rituals are quite literally built around. Presented here are the essays: The Story of Hiram Abiff by William Harvey, The Legend of Hiram Abiff by Manly P. Hall and The Hiramic Legend by Albert G. Mackey.

The first in-depth study of the Freemasons during the Civil War From first-person accounts culled from regimental histories, diaries, and letters, Michael A. Halleran has constructed an overview of 19th-century American freemasonry. The author examines carefully the major Masonic stories from the Civil War, in particular the myth that Confederate Lewis A. Armistead made the Masonic sign of distress as he lay dying at the high-water mark of Pickett's charge at Gettysburg.

This “stupendous ethnography of female Freemasonry in Italy” reveals the fascinating paradox of elitism and exclusion experienced by “female brothers” (Michael Herzfeld, author of Evicted from Eternity). From its cryptic images on the dollar bill to Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, the Freemasons have long been one of the most romanticized secret societies in the world. But a simple fact escapes most depictions of this elite brotherhood: there are also female members. In this groundbreaking ethnography, Lilith Mahmud takes readers inside Masonic lodges of contemporary Italy, where she observes the ritualistic and fraternal bonds forged among Freemason women. Offering a tantalizing look behind lodge doors, The Brotherhood of Freemason Sisters unveils a complex culture of discretion in which Freemasons reveal some truths and hide others. Female initiates—one of Freemasonry’s best-kept secrets—are often upper class and highly educated, yet avowedly antifeminist. Their self-cultivation through the Masonic path is an effort to embrace the deeply gendered ideals of fraternity. In this lively investigation, Mahmud unravels the contradictions at the heart of Freemasonry: an organization responsible for many of the egalitarian concepts of the Enlightenment and yet one that has always been, and in Italy still remains, extremely exclusive. The result is not only a thrilling look at a surprisingly influential world, but a reevaluation of the modern values we now take for granted